This race was first held in 1951 and was won by Supreme Court. The 1975 renewal featured Grundy and Bustino. These two top-class thoroughbreds fought out such a titanic finish that the race is regarded by many as one of the best in the history of the sport.

The race is run over a distance of one and a half miles at Ascot in late July. Three year-olds carry eight stones and nine pounds, while older horses are allotted nine stones and seven pounds. Fillies and mares receive a three pound allowance, while four pounds is deducted from any four year-old runner who ventures here from the southern hemisphere.

Some incredibly famous horses have won this contest over the years, including Shergar, Galileo, Montjeu, King’s Theatre, Opera House, Generous, Nashwan and Reference Point. Brigadier Gerard is perhaps the most well know champion of all.

Here are some trends and statistics based on the last ten runnings of the race. Eight runners go to post this year in a hotly contested renewal.

 

Age (wins-placed-runners)

3-y-o: 3-4-13

4-y-o: 7-6-43

5-y-o: 0-4-11

6-y-o+: 0-1-8

  • Seven of the last ten winners were aged four which is good news for backers of: Cracksman, Crystal Ocean, Salouen, Coronet and Hydrangea.
  • Being over four years of age could prove to be a negative statistic for Desert Encounter and Poet’s Word.
  • Since the year 2000 there have been just five three-year old winners which is a trend Rostropovich will be trying to buck.

 

Form

  • Nine of the last ten winners finished in the first three places last time out. That is a bad sign for Hydrangea.
  • Ten out of ten winners had run two to four races that season.
  • Seven out of ten winners had won at least one race that season.

 

Trainers

  • Michael Stoute has trained the winner three times since the turn of the millennium and six times in total (1981, 1983, 2002, 2009 & 2010).
  • John Gosden has had three winners of the race including last year with Enable.
  • Aidan O’Brien also has a formidable record in this race having won most recently with Highland Reel in 2016 and four times in total (2001, 2007, 2008 & 2016).

 

Starting Price

Nothing over 9/1 has won for the last ten years. It is highly probable this trend will continue on Saturday.

 

Runner-By-Runner Guide

Cracksman

His participation is by no means certain at this stage, but his owner-breeder Anthony Oppenheimer felt it was worth declaring his four-year-old in the hope that the forecasted thunderstorms and rain arrives by the bucket load on Friday.

Cracksman was the runaway winner of the Champion Stakes here last autumn but after his scrambled Coronation Cup victory, he was brushed aside by Poet's Word in the Prince Of Wales's Stakes at the Royal Meeting.

Clearly his mind was on other things that day and the chances are that we will see him back on the track in autumn rather than on Saturday.

 

Crystal Ocean

With Ryan Moore required by Ballydoyle, the ride on ante-post favourite Crystal Ocean has gone the way of William Buick

Sir Michael Stoute has called on the services of the Derby winning jockey Buick to ride the Hardwicke Stakes victor, with the Godolphin operation being without a runner in the race.

Despite stepping up here from Group Two company into a Group One, he looks well equipped to make the transition. His only run at this level was a close second in the St Leger last season and he is clearly a better horse this season.

 

Desert Encounter

Ran just last weekend when chasing home Emotionless at Newbury.

Desert Encounter came sixth to Enable in this very race last season and a similar finishing position is envisaged this year.

The odds look stacked against this six-year-old on Saturday.

 

Poet’s Word

Poet’s Word, owned by Derby-winning Dubai businessman Saeed Suhail, bids for the biggest prize of his career when he lines up for the £1.25 million King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

The Prince Of Wales’s Stakes winner will be looking to give Sir Michael Stoute his sixth win in the race. If he can take this race then he would overtake Saeed Bin Suroor and Dick Hern as the most-winning trainer of this race.

 

Salouen

The Sylvester Kirk-trained Saloeun ran Cracksman to a head in the Coronation Cup at Epsom and backed that up when only beaten a length and a quarter in third place behind Waldgeist in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.

The four-year-old is pitched in at the deep end again here but is one to include in forecasts and tricasts at a nice price.

 

Coronet

Coronet came within a whisker of claiming her first Group One success in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud but her trainer John Gosden knows she will have to step up another notch to topple the likes of Crystal Ocean and Poet's Word.

Coronet is a proven Group Two winner but is yet to win at the highest level from seven attempts. She is however a proven course and distance winner at the track on quick ground for Olivier Peslier, and he takes the mount again.

 

Hydrangea

The Aidan O’Brien-trained Hydrangea is another course and distance winner in the field. She landed the Group One Champions Fillies and Mares here on Champions Day last October on the back of a great run in the Prix De L’opera at Chantilly.

She has failed to sparkle so far this season and with the O’Brien stable having one or two horses with dirty scopes at the moment you have to worry about her chances.

 

Rostropovich

He has finished second on his last two starts in the King Edward VII and Irish Derby but the latter result probably flatters him as he was left out in front for a long way.

Rostropovich would be a surprise winner of this contest even if the Ballydoyle maestro trains him.

 

888sport Predicts...

  1. Crystal Ocean
  2. Poet’s Word
  3. Salouen

 

*Odds subject to change - correct at time of writing*

Steven is a sports and horse racing enthusiast and is a member of the Horseracing Writers and Photographers Association (HWPA) in the United Kingdom.

He is a regular visitor to Paris Longchamp for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and a lifelong fan of the Aintree Grand National, a subject he writes about 52 weeks of the year. Last year he reached the impressive milestone of attending the last 30 renewals of the Grand National.